Admit That (Part 1)

Thea’s POV

I looked up and met his gaze, and that’s when I saw it. I wanted to believe I was wrong. I thought I was wrong, but I had never seen this look in his eyes directed at me before. All I could see in his gaze was burning desire.

His thumb brushed over my nipple through the bra, the rough friction making me gasp. He didn’t hesitate to take advantage, cupping my entire breast and squeezing just hard enough to make me squirm.

“Shit,” I whispered as heat flooded between my legs. My body was betraying me in the worst fucking way.

“Your tits are fucking perfect like this,” he growled, his other hand joining in to massage my second breast, thumbs circling both nipples until they stood painfully erect against the thin fabric.

I need to push him away, but my pregnancy hormones were going insane. It had been months since anyone touched me like this, and my body was desperate for it. For a split second, I let myself imagine what it could have been like if he’d actually wanted me during my first pregnancy—if he’d touched me like this instead of avoiding me like the plague.

His hands shifted downward, caressing my swollen belly with surprising tenderness. When he dropped to his knees in front of me, pressing his lips against my stomach in a kind of reverent gesture, my head almost spun. Then his fingers hooked into the sides of my panties, beginning to tug them down.

“I need to taste you,” he growled, looking up at me with those green eyes.

That look—so hungry, so fucking primal—snapped me back to my senses. What the hell was I doing?

“Stop,” I snapped, shoving him back with enough force that he actually stumbled. “Get the fuck away from me.”

He blinked and stood up, seeming to snap out of whatever trance he’d been in. His hands immediately dropped to his sides, but he didn’t step back.

“Thea—”

“Don’t say another fucking word,” I growled at him.

I quickly put my clothes back on and fled the room. I really liked those clothes, but if I had to spend one more minute with Sebastian, I’d rather be damned.

Within minutes, I was outside the mall. I got in my car and drove away. My thoughts were a mess, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with Sebastian and why he would do something like that. Sebastian had never looked at me with desire, so why did he suddenly look like he wanted to fuck me right there against that mirror?

Sebastian’s POV

Fuck, my head was a mess. She is ours, you could have had her, my wolf growled desperately in my mind, why did you let her go?

As I watched Thea’s back disappearing from the store, he howled for me to go after her, but my rational mind told me I had completely fucked things up. I had seen the terror in her eyes, but like a man under a spell, my brain had completely shut down when I saw her nearly naked body. Until she pushed me away, I hadn’t realized what I was about to do.

In seven years of marriage, Thea had never provoked such an intense reaction from me. I had seen her uncovered many times before, but today was completely different. I couldn’t explain it, but it was different. As if I was truly seeing her for the first time.

Our sex life hadn’t been frequent, but it was passable, though I always held back. Every time I was intimate with Thea, I was overwhelmed with guilt, feeling like I was betraying Aurora. The early years of our marriage were the worst; afterward, I would often lock myself in my study, letting alcohol numb me until I passed out. Later, I learned to suppress that guilt, burying it deep and simply satisfying basic physical needs.

Although I didn’t believe I loved Thea, I never betrayed our marriage. An Alpha’s marriage vow was as binding as Pack law. Plus, my parents’ love and attitude toward marriage had influenced me. So despite numerous she-wolves hinting they would be happy to become my mistress, I never once considered infidelity.

I tugged at my hair, utterly frustrated. The intense desire I felt for Thea minutes ago had nearly brought me to my knees. I couldn’t erase from my mind the curves of her body, fuller from pregnancy, or my urge to push aside her panties and bury myself in her warm depths.

I was already painfully hard just from seeing her partially clothed body, harder than I could ever remember being in my life. The whole thing left me confused and scared.

Cursing under my breath, I left the changing room, instinctively trying to escape her scent, escape the memories, and escape the desire consuming my entire body.

I typically didn’t frequent such common malls; all my clothing was made by exclusive tailors. It was my mother who suggested I come here to see if there was anything suitable for Leo.

I hadn’t expected to run into Thea at all. I was about to leave the parking lot when I spotted her, looking nervous and sneaky, and out of curiosity, I decided to follow her, wondering what was making her so tense.

Now I really wished I hadn’t followed her, because I was certain she would distance herself even more from me after what happened today.

I got in my car and drove toward my parents’ house. I was so tense I could barely breathe, every part of me curled in on itself, my mind still flooded with images of Thea. My wolf kept repeating one thought: Go back to her, mark her, make her completely ours.

I quickly reached the house, grabbed the toys for Leo, and walked inside. I planned to hand the toys to my mother and then head to my club for a drink.

“You finally made it. Did you get the toys?” my mother asked, looking up from the sofa.

I just nodded, my teeth clenched, struggling to control my emotions from leaking out.

As always, though, my mother could sense when something was wrong with her children.

“Your wolf seems unsettled,” she observed keenly. “What happened?”

I wasn’t one for heart-to-heart talks, but for a moment, I actually wanted to confide in her. But I stopped myself, because how could I possibly say it? How could I tell her that the wolfless woman we had hated for nearly a decade was now driving me crazy? That she occupied almost every moment of my thoughts? How could I reveal that if Thea hadn’t pushed me away, I might have taken her right there in that fitting room? And that wouldn’t have been enough—I would have brought her home and taken her again and again, covering every inch of her skin with my scent?

“Is it about that article?” her question pulled me from my dangerous thoughts.

“What article?” I snapped back to the present.